In September of 1994 I sat on the filthy fabric of a striped Salvation Army couch, surrounded by the who's-who of degenrates. We'd end up there every day, gambling on heads-up matches of NHL '94, skipping class, and acting like filthy hippies. That's when inspirations struck. My buddy Scott saw an maazine ad with a picture of beautiful downtown Amsterdam.
At 5 AM on a cold damp Dutch December, four of us wandered out of train station in downtown Amsterdam with no reservations, no map of downtown, and no inhibitions whatsoever. Folks, THAT was the best New Year's Eve...EVER! Say what you want about the Dutch..'em people can throw a party.
Carpe Wha?
Most of the great events of my life started off that way. Like the time I skipped midterms for a late night ride to Graceland....she had a credit card and I had a car. Just this year, I got an IM from an internet celebrity that simply said, "You wanna go suprise Otis in Nassau?". Three days later we did just that. Sometime ask me or Otis about He-Con...same sorta thing.
So Friday afternoon Otis opens the mail to find his new set of COPAG cards. It's a big deal for him because he's used to the $0.50 impulse buy, checkout line variety. I'm quite sure he was dissappointed that the new plastic cards don't come with little fishies or an American flag on the back.
At about 3:30 Otis found me on the teenage girl chatterbox device. He had a hankerin' for a game. BadBlood and I were immediately in, because we're losers like that. Folks, here's what happened to the best of my recollection :
If Bradoween is like this, we'll need medics on standby
The Game :
1s G-Rob
2s Otis
3s Quillayute
4s Shep Tiltstein
5s The Mark
6s F***Face Fire Fighter (Worst NickName EVER..thank Mrs. Otis for THAT!)
7s Stan
8s BadBlood
9s Frank the Tank
10s The Axeman
We actually started 6 handed, and had to break the game when the other 3 players arrived. Otis went to pick up "the Mark"'s table top while the drunken degenerate gamblers stayed home with his baby boy. (This is tottally false if you're from DSS)
As always we started serious. I went down a full buy-in when my pocket 10s found Stan's DoubleAs. Later I made that back with aces of my own against BadBlood's pocket jacks.
This is one of those stare-em-down games, long pauses to contemplate a call, frequent counting and re-counting of chips, long stares across the felt. BadBlood was struggling early and Otis was barely better. I took another buy in from BadBlood when he pushed with top pair against my flush and straight draw...I caught on the river. Hours later Otis would push all-in against my flopped Ace-high flush.
Blah blah blah..sounds so ordinary
First of all, its NOT ordinary, this is a G-Vegas home game which is always much more fun than whatever garbage YOU'RE slinging. The people at these tables are some of the more entertaining in the world, and you'll see every possible style within 5 minutes of grabbing a chair.
That said, this was much more than a typical G-Vegas home game.
Highlights include :
The Mark DESTROYS BadBlood in a left-handed arm wrestle.
The Mark chases Everclear with tequilla.
BadBlood chases and entire bottle of red wine with the same Jose Cuervo.
Mrs. Otis plays her first LIVE hand....and DROPS THE HAMMER for a win. (she outdrew my jackhammer)
Otis challenges the Mark to a heads-up $100 NLO8 showdown and loses (good night for the Mark)
Teuilla, 10 at a time, served on silver trays for the entire table...10 TIMES!
4AM and somebody decides to leave.
Another common thread
Most of the pictures from Amsterdam have that, "WOW! I bet that was fun" feel. I have a hard time writing about the trip because I'd spend most of the time decribing those pictures with very little independant recollection. I have that problem with the better trips I've taken. I remember having fun, and that's a pretty short story.
Soon you'll see some pictures from last night. I warn you, viewer discretion is HIGHLY ADVISED. I don't remember much, except this phone call from Otis at 1:15 this afternoon, answered by my wife :
Otis : Is G-Rob home
Wife : He's still asleep
Otis : Tell him to go f*** himself
I do know I finished UP a few hundred.
We'll let the pictures, whenever Otis gets around to it, tell the rest of the story.
AND FOR THOSE OF YOU COMING TO BRADOWEEN...YOU'VE BEEN WARNED! SO HELP ME PEOPLE, BRING A CAMERA!